The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Mary Moody Northen Theatre, St. Edward's University, February 16 - 26

by Michael Meigs

One measure of the power of Arthur Miller's drama about the Salem witch trials of 1692 is the startling transformation of familiar actors. Tiny Sophia Franzella, now a junior at St. Edward's, has charmed audiences with her wildly comic and mischievous personae in The Imaginary Invalid, Urinetown and A Year with Frog and Toad. Here, as the malicious and vindictive accuser Abigail Williams, Franzella is smooth faced duplicity, a murderous woman-child driven by spite and lust. Hers is a finely understated performance, one that makes her all the more hair-raising because of her almost silent conviction and the restraint of her lust for her former employer John Proctor.

David Stahl, an Equity regular at Austin Playhouse, has acquitted himself of a wide range of characters in Austin theatre but those which remain most vivid in memory, for better or worse, are clowns -- the unnamed all-purpose player in The 39 Steps, the hypochondriac in Laughter on the 23rd Floor, the old actor Henry in The Fantasticks, and Sagot, the prancing rouge-cheeked art dealer in Picasso at the Lapin Agile. Director Michelle Polgar recruited Stahl for the role of Deputy Governor Danforth, the chief inquisitor who entirely dominates the second half of The Crucible. Stahl is nothing less than terrifying, with his baleful stare, self certainty and the immense self regard of a small man in a position that surpasses his capacities.

Arthur Miller studied the historical records of the Salem witch trials, but he wrote this 1953 piece principally as an indictment of the obsessive Communist hunting led by Senator Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee (a body that three years later convicted Miller of contempt of Congress for his refusal to furnish names during a hearing). The witch hunt metaphor stuck like pitch to the investigators and did a great deal to turn public sentiment against them.

Ironically, the meaning of the play's title remains obscure for many -- so much so that the student calling from the Mary Moody Theatre box office was asking whether I wanted to make an early reservation for "the curcible." A crucible is a bowl or other recipient capable of withstanding high temperatures. Miller's title is drawn from the technology of smelting -- melting and then shaping ingots from white-hot metal. It's an inexact metaphor for the content of the play, for the hysterical and then judicial processes described in the work are not transformational but, rather, purely destructive.

Upcoming: DayBoyNightGIrl by Kirk German, Workshop Performances by DA! Theatre Collective, St. Stephen's School, December 17 and 18

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DA! Theatre Collective proudly presents

DAYBOYNIGHTGIRL

a work in progress production

script KIRK GERMAN choreography LISA DEL ROSARIO original score JUSTIN SHERBURN

featuring Robin Grace Thompson, Jude Hickey, Jacob Trussell, Rhonda Kulhanek, Scott Roskilly, Taylor Kulhanek, and guest artist Kyle Housworth

conceived and produced by DA! Theatre Collective under the direction of Heather Huggins

Sat, Dec 17th @ 8 pm, Sun, Dec 18th @ 4 pm
Helm Fine Arts Center, St. Stephen's Episcopal School, 6500 St. Stephen's Drive, Austin, TX, 78746 (click for map)

TICKETS $10 - $25 (sliding scale) via BuyPlayTix **Free Admission for the St. Stephen's community**
For more information: http://www.datheatrecollective.org; tickets@datheatrecollective.org; tel. (512)699-5427

DAYBOYNIGHTGIRL is an interdisciplinary adaptation of The Romance of Photogen & Nycteris, a magical tale written by Scottish author George MacDonald in 1882.

This project started with an idea: can we thread three distinct forms together to bring Photogen & Nycteris to the stage. To test our hypothesis, DA! commissioned choreographer Lisa del Rosario, composer Justin Sherburn, and playwright Kirk German. Each artist focused attention on the character of Nycteris ('Night Girl'). Nycteris is part of a mysterious sorcerer's experiment in which she is raised in captivity, never setting foot outside of her chambers or seeing until one evening when she escapes from the castle walls to discover the uncharted world beyond: the wind, the gardens, the night sky.

In April 2011, we hosted our initial work in progress production, inviting community members to dialogue about this first part of Nycteris's story. The audience shared that our integration of forms was not only working, but that they (like us) desired an even greater synthesis.

This month we will again open our process and invite audiences to dialogue, this time about the first part of the Day Boy's story, while also refining and improving upon the work from our initial showing.

Just 2 performances, each followed by a talk-back! Then join us again for the full length version at The Rollins this June! We hope you'll join the conversation!

Hedda Gabler (for export), Palindrome Theatre at the Salvage Vanguard Theatre, July 28-30,

by Michael Meigs

Austin's youngish Palindrome Theatre is on its way to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, to perform their new, 90-minute non-stop Hedda Gabler every afternoon from August 5 to 29, except for Wednesdays. Outside those office hours the six-member cast and associates will be free to immerse themselves in the largest international arts event around, now in its 74th year. Last year, for example, Edinburgh offered 2,453 different shows staging 40,254 performances by 21,148 performers in 259 venues.

That's a theatre artist's dream, but it doesn't come cheap. Artistic directors Nigel O'Hearn and Kate Eminger have raised all but about $3000 of the costs, including travel, staging costs and artists' compensation. The company is making a last push this weekend in Austin, staging the export version at the Salvage Vanguard Theatre Thursday - Saturday, July 28 - 30. You can purchase your $25 fundraiser ticket on-line at their website.

Palindrome staged O'Hearn's first reworking of Ibsen's piece in February and March at the Blue Theatre and received positive reviews from ALTcom and others. The ALT review provides links to pieces by Robert Faires of the Austin Chronicle and by Ryan E. Johnson at examiner.com. Preparing to write this article, I discovered that Palindrome had put together a two-minute video promo featuring a key scene and several "pull quotes," including my own comment, "Robin Grace Thompson gives us a Hedda who is burning with psychic energy. She is deliberate and wicked." (Click to view the video at Vimeo.com.)

Attending a rehearsal of the export version of Hedda Gabler last week, I found a piece recrafted both by O'Hearn and by the ensemble, retaining the strong central core of Thompson as Hedda and Chase Crossno as Thea, the runaway wife who follows Hedda's former lover. Jacqueline Harper plays the servant Berthe, a role considerably strengthened. Nathan Osborn, who played the dissolute, desperate Einar Lövberg, has now assumed the role of George Tesman, Hedda's husband of six months.

Click to read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: Hedda Gabler, Palindrome Theatre at the Salvage Vanguard, July 28 - 30

Click to read ALT review of July 25

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PALINDROME THEATRE GOES INTERNATIONAL: HEDDA GABLER

Austin Preview at the Salvage Vanguard

July 28 - 30

of the piece to be presented at Theatre at the Fringe, Edinburgh, Scotland

Ticket Price: $25+ fundraising price

Box office Phone: 512-939-6829

Website: www.palindrometheatre.com

Co-Produced with Remarkable Arts of Edinburgh, Scotland, Palindrome has been selected to bring its new adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler by Palindrome's resident playwright, Nigel O'Hearn to the 2011 Edinburgh International Festival Fringe for a full run this August.

Palindrome will be presenting a reimagined, revised 90min version of their critically acclaimed production, with new, original overture, for 3 farewell performances only, to be followed by a reception each evening.

Featuring Robin Grace Thompson, Nathan Osburn, Chase Crossno, Jude Hickey, Nigel O’Hearn and Jackie Harper.

Hedda Gabler will be running in Edinburgh at The Hill Street Theater August 5-29, every day at 2 p.m.

Hedda Gabler, adapted by Nigel O'Hearn, Palindrome Theatre Company at the Blue Theatre, February 18 - March 13

Hedda Gabler puzzled and annoyed audiences across Europe when it was first staged in 1890 and 1891 -- pretty much the same reaction Ibsen had elicited with most of his later plays. He was 61 when he wrote this one, exasperated with the bourgeois public that went to the theatre and purchased copies of his plays.

The last lines of the play are spoken by Judge Brack, that worldly sybarite who took Hedda's husband George and her would-be lover off to an all-night stag party, then comfortably assured Hedda he was looking forward to a cozy triangle, with her at the apex. In the crashing finale after Hedda kills herself with a pistol shot to the head, Brack expostulates, "But good God! People don't do such things!"

If that's a spoiler for you, accept my apologies. The secret has been out for a long time, however, and the real question of this play is not whether Hedda is going to use that pistol, but why she's going to do it. The first audiences for the work, in Berlin, Stockholm, Copenhagen and Cristiana, the capital of Norway, had stronger reactions than Judge Brack.

Attitudes changed gradually, however. Hedda, along with Nora from A Doll's House, were eventually viewed with more sympathy, particularly as women strove against the paternalism prevalent throughout Western society.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: Hedda Gabler, Palindrome Theatre, February 18 - March 13

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HENRIK IBSEN’S

HEDDA GABLER

New adaptation by Palindrome Theatre’s Resident Playwright Nigel O’Hearn

Feb. 18^th-Mar. 13^th, Thursday-Saturday 8 pm, Sundays 5 pm

The Blue Theater, 916 Springdale (click for map)

Ticket Price: $20 general admission, $12 -25/65+

512-939-6829 - www.palindrometheatre.com

To open our second season, Palindrome offers the internationally acclaimed Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler in a new adaptation by Palindrome's resident playwright, Nigel O'Hearn. Directed by Kate Eminger and featuring Robin Grace Thompson, Chase Crossno, Aaron Alexander, Nathan Osburn, Rommel Sulit, Rachel McGinnis, and Jackie Harper, this world premiere will run for four weeks only.

Upcoming: Reading of New Text for Hedda Gabler, Palindrome Theatre at Hyde Park Theatre, December 6

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ONE NIGHT ONLY- PUBLIC READING of

HENRIK IBSEN’S HEDDA GABLER

New adaptation by Palindrome Theatre’s Resident Playwright Nigel O’Hearn

Monday Dec. 6, 8 p.m., Hyde Park Theatr, Guadalupe & 43rd St.

Free. Donations accepted

www.palindrometheatre.com

Please join us for a preview of the first play of our second season- Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler with a new adaptation by Palindrome's resident playwright, Nigel O'Hearn- world premiere opening February 2011 at The Blue Theater.

The reading will be of the first two acts of the new material which has never before been seen in public.

Reading features Robin Grace Thompson, Chase Crossno, Bernadette Nason, Nathan Osburn, Gabe Luna, Kim Adams, and Harvey Guion (with playwright reading stage directions and scowling).

Drinks to be served, discussion to be had. Approx 2 hrs.

[image adapted from image at www.wfu.edu]

At Home at the Zoo, Edward Albee, Palindrome Theatre at the Off Center, November 5 - 21

Edward Albee once commented, "If you can sum a play in one sentence, that's how long the play should be." That's a fine bon mot and a cutting challenge to all who try to work in the odd art form of the theatre review.

Albee has challenged and puzzled the public, the theatre community and academics since The Zoo Story, the second half of this theatre evening, first took the stage in Berlin 51 years ago. I have on my desk the Austin Public Library's copy of the Prentice-Hall collection of essays on Albee, published in 1975, where writers try to deal with The Zoo Story, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and other pieces written in the opening decades of the playwright's career.

I remember vividly reading The Zoo Story, probably for a university class back in the late 1960's -- when it was new, so to speak, and path-breaking, a glimpse beyond the comfortable categories of American drama. It's interesting that a couple of the writers in the 1975 compendium -- which I've glanced at but not read attentively -- seek to interpret the piece through the lens of the Theatre of the Absurd. Martin Esslin, inventor of the term, in fact faults Albee for not pushing the situation to absurdity, for not taking the rant and ultimately the threats of a deranged New Yorker far enough.

But that was the fascination of the piece: that its poetic intensity of horror was completely plausible. Certainly to those us in the hinterlands, and probably even more so to New Yorkers, even in the comfortable late 1950's. Hasn't the poetry of threat and violence been played out over and over again in the past 50 years, distilled and dealt out by the media in doses that make The Zoo Story seem simple and sensible by comparison?

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: At Home at the Zoo, Edward Albee, Palindrome Theatre at the Off Center, November 5 - 21

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LIMITED ENGAGEMENT:

AUSTIN PREMIERE OF EDWARD ALBEE’S

AT HOME AT THE ZOO

Palindrome Theatre’s Final Production of Their Inaugural Season

Directed by Austin Sheffield and featuring Jude Hickey, Robin Grace Thompson, and Nigel O’Hearn, the production will run for 13 performances only!

Nov. 5 – Nov. 21 Thur.–Sat. 8pm, Sun. 5pm*.

The Off Center, 2211-A Hidalgo. Just south of E. 7^th, off Robert T. Martinez

Ticket Price: $15-$30 sliding-scale general admission, $10 25-and-under, 60-and-over.

Box Office phone and website: 512-939-6829, www.palindrometheatre.com

for mature audiences

Capping their first season, Palindrome Theatre is bringing to Austin for the first time Edward Albee’s At Home At The Zoo, a completion of America’s greatest living playwright’s very first play, 1958’s The Zoo Story.

Expanded earlier this decade from the original 1958 version, At Home At The Zoo is a delicately startling look at strangers at home and at the zoo, the relationship of people and animals, people as animals, and the longing for connection in a frighteningly solitary life.

Very funny stuff!

*Community Days - in an effort to fulfill our mission of working to make theatre a more accessible social and spiritual necessity, Mon. and Tue. Nov. 15 and 16 will be community days, with hearing and visually impaired performances, and $7 tickets for all!